THE NE..W YORKER .1voided this narcissIsll1, and perhaps the best is Michael Moore. Moore caIne to N ew York eight years ago froll1 Cin- cinnati, where he was born and attend- ed the conservatory, and he has lis- tened to La Faro, Swallow, Peacock, Stewart, Brown, and Mitchell-the tradition of Jill1my Blanton. Moore has a half-moon s111ile and a SunJav- <;chool ll1ien, and he plays with angelic fervor. He hovers lightly over his in- strull1ent (111oSt of his colleagues drape thell1selves over their basses like col- lapsed parachutes), closes his eyes, and slall1s the door of concentration. He i:; a ll1asterly technician, hut his virtuosity is subordinate to his invention. He has perfected what Blanton, and then Pet- tiford and MIngus and Mitchell, set out to dO-Ill1provise cOll1plete and heautiful ll1elodies of whatever length on the pizzicato bass. (] owed bass is extrell1ely difficult, and few ja7z bass- ists have ll1aStered it. Slall1 Stewart, who hums in octave unison with what he plavs, is singularly adept, but ll1any others have been intill1idated hy in- tonation problell1s, by the very awk- \vardness of bowing the bas,;, c:lnd bv the instrull1ent's grave and alll10st ill1- mobile tonal qualities. SYlnphonic bass- ists are no better off, but for a different reason. Although they playa great deal in ensell1bles, the litel a[ure for solo bass, like that for solo tuba, ha,; only hegun to be written.) v'Tithout resorting to double-stops or guitar flourishes or ton- al jokes, Moore constructs lyrical pas- sages of the highest order. The new bclssists, in attell1pting to transcend their instrull1ent, make it obtrude; J\1oore lifts his listeners into the realnl of pure ll1elody, where one is conscious nOt of notes being plucked hut only of new and disembodied song-so Moore favors '-' silence, and he has an unfailing and always surprising rhythll1ic sense. He catches you by starting phrases in odd places and by suddenly doubling his tilne. Where another ba,;sist would use a connective tnplet or an arpeggio, Moore rests. Each solo gleall1s 1nd tl1ultiplies, like sunlight on water, and ed-eh is ill1pOl tant, In the way tbat Sid Catlett's and Sonny Ro1lins' Ind Jill1 Hall's are. You sit vcr, StIn when \1oore plays Moore is appearing clt the 13elne]- mans Bar with \1arian \1c Partland once or twice a week, 'Ind tonlght- their second night-turned out to be a brilliant and perhaps unwitting tussle. McPartland was in relnarkable fornl: her runs were like heet steel, her "ingle- note rhvthmic passagt s cantered, and her harll10nies were ta} cred and tropI- caL Moore's accoll1paniment was 111od- , . , . . , , , A challenge from Gordon's, the happy vodka. Gordon's is so smooth, so clear, so mixable. It has U.S. patent No. 3,930,042 to prove it. çJ\TÄ <: \ \ 0, . tj)\ rv, ' 3ÛQ .....-.,. ----- , I . OR o V r j it f $I ,"9-!{ I'A j ì f)AA UliÐ[rr Js"nl l T1ltJ' PiAlliFIE t,[ ìtv lED -tlTY, '" 80 PROOF DISTILLED FROM GRAIN GORDON S DRY GIN CO LTD., LINDEN, N.J. . 113 I . . .... '<.4 ALSO AVAILABLE IN 100 PROOF